Equal Pay Day for Women in Australia is held on Thursday 8th September.

During September I am running Salary Negotiation Events & Webinars for women looking to develop their skills in this area. Why? Because the pay gap is sadly nearing 18%. The gap only increases the more senior the role you hold, upwards of 20%.

If you haven’t negotiated your salary package lately or ever – then this presentation held on Equal Pay Day for Women is a must attend.

If you want to be working smarter and increasing your earning capacity at the same time, this presentation will equip you with the tools and confidence to do so.

Some of the reasons why women resist engaging in salary negotiation and career promotion conversations include; our different personality types, social conditioning, overvaluing competency, over-thinking the process, lack of confidence and simply failing to act. Without acting nothing will change.

Come along to an informal and interactive session with Kelly Magowan, author of The Busy Women’s Guide to… Salary Negotiation to learn about how to improve your negotiation skills with both current &/or future employers. In the session we will share salary negotiation stories and ask the key questions around this topic that too many of us shy away from.

Julia Baird writes about knowing your values to help ground you (something I am a strong advocate of for men & women to be aware of). If you are not sure what yours are, you can do a complimentary values exercise on my blog, ‘How To Define & Live Your Values’

Having clarity of your core values forms part of the foundation of who you are and helps in building self- confidence. In the article there is a wonderful suggestion for when your confidence is lacking particularly when speaking or appearing somewhere:– Ask yourself, who are you– Why you are there,– What you stand for. Then speak from that place.

There are some great tools and resources about to assist in growing your self-confidence from Ted Talks such as that by Amy Cuddy on ‘Power Posing’, through to ‘The Confidence Code’ book by Claire Shipman & Katty Kay. In addition many coaches, counsellors and psychologists work with clients around building confidence.

Contact me for information about coaching support to help build your confidence.

The DIY Career Change Program is a series of 5 comprehensive 40 page plus workbooks that will take you from reflecting on who you are, and what you are great at, right through to identifying career paths and how to market yourself and secure the roles that you want.

The workbooks are full of amazing content and activities that you will find make a huge impact on how you see yourself and in helping you to move towards roles that will make you happier.

The series of 5 workbooks have been designed for you to print out as I have found people achieve better outcomes if they carry them about with them to capture thoughts, ideas, strategies, names and so on. They will help you build the foundation and provide the road map towards your next great role.

So what is a good job? There are the somewhat antiquated views that still pervade that a good job is one with a flash title and pays well. However, you and I know that there are a lot of people who fit the profile of having a ‘good job’ who are not overly happy going to work each day to pursue this so called ‘good job’.

In reality, what constitutes a good job is subjective. This seems too often be forgotten.

It is common for us all too unconsciously refer to some jobs as being good or bad that friends, family or colleagues hold, without understanding what they involve and the sense of satisfaction people attain from different work pursuits.

Unfortunately, the fear of what others think (status anxiety) can keep people in jobs and careers that make them desperately unhappy. Even though we work in era where new career paths and jobs are constantly emerging, unfortunately many of the traditional views around job titles and status linger!

What we need to remind ourselves to do, is to set aside what others think and say. That we are the only ones who can determine what a good job is for us.

Six ways to help determine if your job is good!

Do you get a kick out of the work you do (on most days at least)?

Do you like the folks you work with?

Are you challenged on a regular basis?

When you reflect on what you do, does it give you some sense of satisfaction or tie in with your purpose?

You will notice that all of the above relate to how you experience your work and the workplace. None of these have anything to do with your job title, profession, the money you earn or where your work is based. There is nothing here about status. It is largely inwardly focused.

So while we are still conditioned to think of a ‘good job’ in the traditional sense of the term, the reality is that a good job is the one that makes you happy.

“There is no passion to be found in playing small—in settling for a life that is less than you are capable of living.” – Nelson Mandela –

Our values make us who we are. They are developed over time in the interactions we experience. It is important for you to understand your values as they act as internal guides to the things you do and say.

The majority of people have never sat down and thought about or documented what their values are. If you are unsure about your key values, I encourage you to review the extensive list of values below to assist in determining what they truly are. If there are values missing from this list, add these to the bottom blank section and treat them as a part of the two exercises below.

It is important to be aware of the values that are meaningful to us. If we know what we value, we are better positioned to think about what industries, types of jobs and companies we may be most suited to. Or whether or not we want to work for ourselves. It will also help to identify those values that we want to avoid in our career and life.

Come and join the AusAPT Mini Conference in July (Brisbane) & August (Melbourne). The following speakers will be presenting;

Dr Angelina Bennet is an occupational psychologist working in executive profiling, organisational analysis, and personal and organisational effectiveness. Formerly a senior consultant with OPP (European distributor of the MBTI), Angelina consults in the UK and Europe via her company I Potential. Angelina is an expert in psychometric applications. A research study for her professional doctorate thesis, ‘Linking the Myers-Briggs to the client’s stage of development’, won a British Psychological Society award. Angelina is the author of The Shadows of Type, and has been president of the British Association for Psychological Type since 2011.

Susan Nash is an international expert in business applications of type and temperament, focusing on team productivity, conflict reduction, performance coaching and leadership effectiveness in retail and high-tech environments through her companies EM-Power and The Type Academy. Susan is the author of nine books, including Contextual Coaching, Teamwork from the Inside Out, Let’s Split the Difference, and Dating, Mating and Relating. Susan has headlined as a keynote speaker at type conferences in the UK, USA and Australia. She is a past president and current board member of the Association for Psychological Type International.

Angelina and Susan are UK-based colleagues and occasional collaborators. As their fields of expertise are complementary, the content of their proposed sessions offers synergies to reinforce and enrich learning.

Like this:

As humans, we can be sceptical about new things as we assume it can negatively impact our lives. For most of us, change represents different degrees of ‘fear’. Fear is a double-edged sword, while it can guarantee our safety, it can also lead to us missing out on wonderful life experiences. This is certainly true when it comes to our work lives.

Throughout my work as a careers professional, for nearly all the clients I have worked with, the topic of ‘fear’ in its different guises has arisen. This fear has led to them staying in jobs and career paths that provide little satisfaction beyond the pay.

According to my experience, fear can be;

Fear of the unknown

Fear of what others will think

Fear of loss of status

Fear of loss of income

Fear of wasted education

Fear of failure

Fear of success

And the list goes on……….

Another area of ‘fear’ in the careers context is other’s ‘projecting’ their ‘fear’ onto those who looking to;

Take a career break

Change careers

Engage in further study

Start their own business

Create a portfolio career

It is not uncommon for people looking to make career changes, to find those around them (friends, family, colleagues) less supportive than they would have imagined about their career choices. There are certainly many reasons why others do this, however their comments are more often than not based around their own ‘fears’ which they project onto the person looking to make changes.

For example, a son who is taking a career break, may find his parents ‘acting’ supportive in some ways, while they also make unsettling comments around the length of time he has been unemployed and the impact it will have on him ever securing another ‘good’ job. He may also find his friends and colleagues questioning his decision to take a career break for such an extended period of time and what this will do to his career.

The son, while initially feeling reasonably confident about his decision becomes increasingly uncertain. Even though he has a plan behind the career break.

In this case, the parents fear is coming from a place of parental concern about their child. From a desire to protect them. Or, it may come from a fear of what others will say if their son has a lower status career or is unemployed for a lengthy stretch of time.

The comments from friends and colleagues could be coming from their own fears, which they are projecting. It could be their anxiety levels if they did not have secure employment or what others would think if they were not working. Or it could be genuine concern for their friends / colleagues welfare. They could also be coming from a place of jealousy, in that while they are not happy in their career, they don’t have the money or confidence to take a career break and potentially make a career transition.

It is normal to have fears around making major changes in our work lives. What we don’t expect when we decide to make changes, is how much the comments of others who doubt and question us, make us question our decisions.

On the topic of career breaks, they are very common these days for all manner of reasons – travel, study, family and a desire to simply take an extended break to recharge. Which makes sense given how hard and long most people work.

When making any changes in your work life be sure to spend some time reflecting and understanding your own fears. Also, be mindful to monitor the comments of those around you – friends, family and colleagues. Don’t take on board their ‘fears’, instead focus on strategies to overcome yours.

At different ages and stages of our lives we look for flexible working arrangements. Be it returning to work after children, or taking a career break, embarking on further study or transitioning into retirement.

Below are some great niche job sites to research, dependent on your situation. Some offer paid employment, others include franchise and business opportunities and volunteer work.

Most of us are afraid when it comes to embarking on a new career path, setting up a new venture or following our creative side – whether for pure pleasure or financial gain. We all have blockers, with some version of fear underlying them all. (see activity below)

In this 30 minute video with Elizabeth Gilbert and Marie Forleo you will find great stories and tips to give you confidence and inspiration to sit more comfortably with your fear and pursue your dreams regardless.

My greatest take-away from the video (there are many) is that finishing something, even if it is just OK is always better than not finishing anything!

“For women, we have a lot of different shame triggers but the number one with women is appearance and body image. For men the number one shame trigger is professional identity and status.” Brene Brown

If you have not come across the researcher Brene Brown before, I would encourage you to check her out. She has some amazing videos on YouTube around vulnerability and more recently I found this fantastic interview with her on Dumbo Feather, ‘Brene Brown Is a Grounded Researcher. The interview covers all manner of topics and provides some insightful and thought provoking questions and ideas. It is very relevant for those who are going through or contemplating a career transition.

While not covered in this interview, Brene Brown has a great visual tactic she uses around vulnerability. She encourages people to keep an empty glass jar and add a marble to it each time you show vulnerability. I use this same concept around my career & lifestyle – putting in marbles when I am working on my career and doing things in my life that are positive (I empty it each month and start again). Often we neglect working on our career and making time for doing things that provide us with personal satisfaction and enjoyment such as hobbies, exercise, meditation, friends, travel etc. It is just too easy to be busy doing all the things we believe we ‘should’ be doing and neglecting doing more of the things we actually want to be doing. I find the marble exercise simple, yet very effective for bringing more balance and enjoyment into my life. That said I do have better months than others. It is a work in progress!